Perceived risks, role, and objectified trustworthiness information in the sharing economy

Trust plays a central role of the sharing economy because there exist potential risks in P2P transactions. To mitigate those risks, both host and guest can utilize the Objectified trustworthiness information (OTI), which is not identical to reputation because higher reputation does not always mean he is trustworthy. This study aims at analyzing factors influencing the adoption intention of OTI with regard to various factors of perceived risk, role (host versus guest), usage experience, gender, and age. The regression analysis results reveal that young guests are likely to adopt OTI to mitigate perceived risk than aged hosts.